What's really changed is the fact that, according to the California Dept. of Finance website, the population of CA in 1850 was 92,597 and the 2010 census shows a current population of 37,253,956. According to Wikipedia that puts CA, if it were an independent nation, at number 36 of 252 nations listed. I've lost track of where we are as an economic force, but I recall that we're near the top all by ourselves.

I'm not saying I think the above is good, just what the change has been in 160 years.

My family left Cali in the late eighties after the Savings and Loan scandals. We ended up in the Northwest and love it. It seems that half of everyone around here is from Cali and never went back. Used to be that this was true of western Oregon and if they found out you were from Cali they weren't so nice. When we first came to Washington it was better to keep where you came from to yourself especially if you came from California. For all of you who would like to move here be warned of the carnivorous Slugs, Lots of rain and snow. Its Cloudy and cold most of the time. As I write this its 32 degrees outside and frozen and has been that way all week. You've been warned ..Fred

George I was thinking of Steve when I said that about Iowa and Nebraska. And though I've never been to Kansas that I can remember, I'm sure it's a beautiful state. Actually it's one of the few states I've never been to. And I think I'm missing something important. Maybe. Possibly.

Well, I am not looking to pi$$ any one off but I was born in Austin Texas, moved to Colorado in my early 20's, moved back to Texas, then was transferred by the company I worked for to the Bay area of California where I lived 12 miles from the Napa Valley. I lived there for 8 years. There are some great sights to see in California and do not regret living there. Then the company I work for offered me a good promotion and moved me to Denver Colorado about 9 years ago. I drive through Kansas a couple of times a year to visit friends and family in Fayetteville Arkansas. I would rather visit Kansas about 25 times before going back to California. Just My .02.

I was born here in California, 3rd generation native in fact (one grandmother born in San Jose of Italian immigrants - other 3 grandparents from Italy). It's a beautiful state. Mountains, valleys, beaches, deserts, great weather, lots of agriculture, everything a person could possibly want. Now if we could only develop a strategy that would convince about 35 million of the 37+ million who live here to move elsewhere things would be perfect!

Thanks, Paul, as Colorado gets more and more Califunny every year I enjoy my small town living here out in the boonies more and more. PS I grew up in the Denver area and moved away to go to school. I remember only once being "homesick", and got over that pretty fast. The nice thing about it is Colorado is now a nice place to visit. I'm hoping in a few years to take a trip-as in driving my T from here to there and then around there and return to here in it.

When L.A. was a little town like Wichita, southern California wasn't a bad place to live. We used to drive through bean fields and orange groves to get to Knotts', where the ghost town was a free place to hang out while you waited for your chicken dinner. The Crown Valley down to Capistrano was a beautiful drive through curvaceous hills, green in the spring and accented by splashes of yellow mustard left by the Spanish explorers to mark their passage. Then it was westward ho the bulldozers, and those lovely hills disappeared under houses and apartment buildings, and orange trees became extinct in Orange County, and millions of people and their cars followed the bulldozers, and it all wasn't so nice anymore. Some old white guys are bothered by the ethnic diversity, but Mom's best friend was Nisei, and I was raised with Mexicans, and worked where most of the folks I worked with were black, so the diversity doesn't bother me a whit. In fact, it's a culinary and cultural plus. What bothers me is that too many people, even if they're mostly good people, are too many people. I'm just grateful that millions of people are willing to live in California, and Chicago, and New York, and so on, which means that all of them aren't where I am.

Born and Raised here in L.A. sure wish I could remember the days when Steve and others were here. But that was before my time, I have never known it anything but to crowded - still love So Cal though. It makes driving our antiques abit more of a challenge, I think. Almost always too much traffic :-(

My grandparents (on my step fathers side) were honest to goodness 'Grapes of Wrath', dust bowl, Oakies who moved to Calif. during the Depression. My real father and my mother moved from New York to Calif. in 1948. I lived there (on and off, thanks to the military), from 48 to 97. California was the place to be in the 'Surfin USA' early 60's, but then 'The Hippies' came along. :-(

It always seems to me, heavily populated areas in warm climates have the stink of human odor and never feel the cleansing of a below 0 fahrenheit winter. However while in Phoenix Arizona last week it actually got below freezing for about 10 minutes and I think I saw several of the natives shivering and wiping frozen tears from their cheeks. Ahhhh!

California used to have the most courteous drivers in the nation, the best roads (you always knew when you were leaving California, the road turned to shite), and miles and miles of real honest to goodness FREEWAYS with nobody on them.

Now we've got the rudest and most impatient drivers in the nation who are more than likely to hit you and make a run for it, the crappiest roads in the nation, jammed packed with all those rude morons I mentioned already. It used to be considered impolite to honk your horn on the freeway, now it's a way of life (feels a lot like driving in NYC) and a couple of tollways (and more to come) which were bought and paid for back when the gas tax actually was spent on road improvement. To top it all off, we've a governor and legislature that seems hell bent on destroying every bit of industry and small business here.

Some days, I just want to jump in the T and head East...but I need to finish it first.

My maternal grandmother (1902-2000) told how she and my grandfather (1895-1965) decided to move to CA from Peoria, Illinois. He was drafted into the US Army during WW I. While in the service he met some boys from CA. They told him how beautiful it is here. When the war ended and he returned to Illinois he met and married my grandmother. They had their first child (1919), then he told her, "If I stay here in the coal mines I won't live much past 40. We're going to CA." She was heartbroken, saying, "What about my family, my parents, my brothers and sisters?" His answer was, "Don't worry. They'll all follow us." Sure enough, that's just how it turned out. Her mother (her dad had died by then), all eight of her siblings, their husbands/wives, and eventually a zillion cousins.

I guess it was a preview of what was to come a little later after WW II.

John and I were typing at the same time this morning. I don't think he's referring to the 9:56 am post about my grandparents, I think he's referring to my earlier post about developing a strategy to get 35 million of our 37+ million to move out.

Mine came in a similar way except they were about 1896. One son came to California and stayed about 2 years. His aunt and uncle were already here. He visited the aunt and she said,"your mother would like you to write her". He wrote a letter telling them how wonderful California was and if the rest of the family could come to California, The sons would have a lot of work to do and the parents could retire.

They all came to California and sure enough the 3 sons became building contractors in the L.A. area and built some of the stations along the Pacific Electric RR. They also built a castle for the Lt. Governor (see picture). They built many houses and banks and hospitals as well as a prison.

Those were the days when we had freedom and liberty. If you owned the land you could build anything you wanted. Not very many rules and restrictions. Norm

Norman, When all of California west of the San Andreas fault slips into the Pacific Ocean, California will once again be a place of Freedom and Liberty. Until then Progressives hold California hostage!

Seriously, they've always thought a certain place mid-run in the San Andreas Fault would isolate an earthquake in one half affecting the other half. After studying a 1998 quake in NZ, and the big one in Japan last year, they now believe the whole fault could rupture together, meaning both San Francisco and Los Angeles areas could become disasters at the same time.

In addition to some supplies, we have a 5KW generator to power the house after a big one. We have a couple of extra gens for sale on CL, but no takers.

Oh, CONgress is debating how many $Billions in aid to give to the victims of Super Storm Sandy. I would like to see them encourage rebuilding only in areas 50 miles or more inland from the coast. There's just as much likelihood of another super storm this year as last year.

Ralph - My full support on the idea of encouraging rebuilding only in areas that are less likely to suffer the same calamity. I fail to understand why we should underwrite rebuilding on coasts the routinely suffer floods. In particular, I find it absolutely amazing that we continue to fight the Mississippi river with a below sea level New Orleans. I'm all for the culture, food and diversity but good grief people, find some higher ground!

Some say that the San Andreas Fault is God's slow patient way of dealing with the Sodom and Gomorrah that Los Angeles and San Francisco have become. I asked a friend the other day while we were having lunch why he lives in San Francisco and he replied " it's just my 'LOT' in life!" Then he asked "would you pass the salt please!" GRIN!

My wife and I visited New Orleans about 6 months before Katrina hit. We took the riverboat ride up and down the Mississippi one afternoon. The guy on the loudspeaker was pointing out interesting things and places as we passed them. At one point he commented that New Orleans is about 18 feet below sea level. I said to my wife, "Why the heck would you put a city so close to the ocean and on the river in a spot that low? It's just plain stupid." The rest, as they say, is history.

I agree with you - next time it's taken out by a storm (and there WILL be a next time), move the whole works about 5 miles upriver.

Ralph, you have a point about "California Improved Oakies", only you got it backwards, it's 'Oakies Improved California'. They came there to work, they built the roads the the Hippies blocked and the parks the Hippies smoked dope in.

I don't think the west side of the fault will "fall into the ocean" In fact if you carefully study the beaches around Camp Pendleton, you will notice several former beaches at varying levels above sealevel. The area appears to be raising up rather than falling down. One thing I know about the fault is the land west is moving north, and some day people in California will have the best of 3 worlds, at least taxwise. They will be off the coast of Oregon and Washington, and can live in California with property taxes limited by proposition 13, no sales tax in Oregon so they do all their purchasing in Oregon and they will work in Washington which has no income tax. Unfortunately for us, it is only moving a few inches per year, so none of will live long enough to enjoy that advantage.

I don't have the references to back this up, but I've always understood that the entire continent of North America is slowly sinking on the east coast and slowly rising on the west coast, sort of a gradual continental tilt. So, I believe your Camp Pendleton beaches observation is accurate.

The Hippies were a colorful blight on the California landscape for sure, they are the major reason that Knott's Berry Farm is fenced and you have to pay to get in today, not to mention what happened to all the beach side communities. For all their prattle of getting back to nature, not one of them really understood farming, sanitation or irrigation or what happens when you mix the two.

You know what a "bowl of granola" California is now, what if everything EAST of the San Andras falls off? And what's left of California becomes an island much like Catalina...now that's a horrifying thought!

You nailed it Ralph. True Southern Californians don't speak in years by number. We speak in geographic years. The 'Watts' (riot) year, the Malibu Hills (fire) year, the the Baldwin Hills (flood) year and the Northridge (quake) year, right?

There are also some of the same things in San Diego County. In 2003 we had the Cedar fire which started by a lost hunter and moved 30 miles overnight from Julian to San Diego, and then turned around and went through Alpine. We were evacuated for a couple of days and didn't know whether out house or Model T's would still be there. The firefighters stopped it less than 100' from our property and because of the wind direction at the time we didn't even have the smell of smoke! See pictues The first picture from our front yard when we left home, the second on the road parked for a while looking back

I've lived in the Los Angeles area all my life. It isn't what it used to be for sure, but where else can you work on your T almost 365 days per year? I don't like what has become of Southern California either, but I doubt if I'll ever leave.

I was born in San Pedro over 80 years ago and the weather has not changed. When Cabrillo landed in San Pedro back in 1543 he named it "Baya de los Fumos" which translates to The Bay of Smokes and we still have smog due to the geographic nature of the topography and not from the automobiles and trucks.

Good point, Frank, and one you don't hear too often. I have also heard that what we today call the L.A. Basin was called the Valley of Smoke by the early Spanish who came to the area for the same reason.

You're way off in that year, Frank. Juan Cabrillo didn't land in San Diego until 1569, and later made his way up the coast.

Smog isn't what it used to be. I see Mt. Wilson 60 miles away from where I'm sitting in my upstairs office right now. I knew a guy from Oregon back in 1959 who lived in Norwalk six months before he knew there were these same mountains 40 miles north of him.

This is only a little deceiving - mild telephoto lens. The Mormon church is about 800 feet away.

Ralph he was very active and since he died in 1543 he was a very important and famous man to be able to continue to explore at that time after he died although just skin and bones in 1569 as you suggested because that was 26 years after he died. Sorry your facts are in error. I know about Cabrillo because being born in San Pedro with a beach named after him and a lot of historic artifacts, we had to study his life. He died out in the Channel Islands while still exploring at the young age of 46, again in 1543 . . . . 26 years before you say he discovered San Pedro Bay.

I think you're both wrong. Looks like it was 1542. From the San Diego History Center website:

September 28, 1542 Juan Rodríguez Cabrillo sails his flagship, the San Salvador, from Navidad (Mexico) into San Diego Bay on September 28, under the flag of Spain. He comes ashore, probably near Ballast Point on Point Loma. He names his discovery San Miguel and declares it a possession of the King of Spain. Cabrillo dies in the Channel Islands off Santa Barbara less than four months later. At this time the native population of San Diego area (estimated at 20,000) includes Luiseño, Cahuilla, Cupeño, Kumeyaay, Northern Diegueño Indian groups. Indians gather acorns from at least six species of oaks, collect fresh fruits and vegetables, hunt and fish.

Fifty years after Columbus landed in the New World, soldier-navigator-explorer Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo led the first European expedition to the shores of what is now the state of California . The voyage, which ended with Cabrilloâ€™s death, marked the beginning of recorded history in the Western United States .

Little is known about Cabrilloâ€™s early years. Even his nationality is uncertain; most biographies describe him as Portuguese, but in his exhaustive 1986 biography Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo, historian Harry Kelsey writes that Cabrillo appears to have been born in Spain , “probably in Seville , but perhaps in Cuellar.” His date of birth and parentage are also unknown, but events in Cabrilloâ€™s life lead Kelsey to believe he was born of poor parents “around 1498 or 1500,” and then worked for his keep in the home of a prominent Seville merchant. The final mystery about Cabrillo is his place of burial. He died on January 3, 1543 off the coast of southern California , but his burial site is unknown; Santa Catalina Island, San Miguel Island and Santa Rosa Island have all been suggested.

I will now vouch for the year when Cabrillo discovered San Diego, but he and the crew had been at sea for so long, they were craving fresh food. On the beach they found some birds nesting and decided to cook up some eggs. One of the crew members dropped an egg in the sand and said,"sandy egg Oh!" Norm

My grandfather on my fathers side was born in Sacramento in the 1850s, and in 1851 on my mothers side my great great grand parents were homesteading Jacks Valley Utah territory. That's just south and west of Carson city ( before Carson city was there).

My grandfather on my fathers side was born in Sacramento in the 1850s, and in 1851 on my mothers side my great great grand parents were homesteading Jacks Valley Utah territory. That's just south and west of Carson city ( before Carson city was there). George We called it San Fran.& some times Frisco. and boy the city dwellers don't like that.